Learn English – Moving the lower case “c” up above type in the last name McNeil

names

I have been asked twice recently to move the lower case "c" up to line up with the other letters or above them – regarding the name McNeil or McDonald, etc…

I do not recall seeing this done in most situations.

Do you know why it would be necessary?

Best Answer

I believe this is because the name element (now) usually expressed "Mc" is actually an abbreviation for "Mac"; at one time, superscript (often with an underline or under dots) was a common way of writing abbreviations without resort to an apostrophe. This is preserved in the symbol for "number".

You can see an example of this in the signature on the letter below, abbreviating "Nathaniel" (from Wikimedia Commons):

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Writing Mc as MC therefore preserves the original, "true" form of the name in a way that Mc does not (as it does not indicate the abbreviation).

There is also a discussion here about the aesthetic and legibility benefits of the superscript c, for more formal type-setting.